Towson, MD (September 9, 2020)—Jesuit preparatory school Loyola Blakefield recently upgraded its Dining Hall with a new sound system based around Renkus-Heinz’ ICLive X Series loudspeakers.
“This system allows our facility to be used for everything from morning prayer to emergency announcement,” said Steve Morill, IT Director for Loyola Blakefield. “It is a popular space for special events of many sizes with ever-changing seating arrangements. We want to offer the best possible learning environment for our students, and this space posed many challenges.”
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With that in mind, the school contacted Lee Hartman & Sons, Inc. to discuss approaches to the space. “We had concerns about the aesthetics, and we didn’t want to invade the space with too many speakers,” said Mike Flaherty, sales engineer at Lee Hartman & Sons. “However, we wanted to ensure that the sound worked well in this acoustically challenging area.” Part of that challenge comes from the fact that the Dining Hall at Loyola Blakefield is not a traditional school cafeteria. It has a crisp, modern look that incorporates woodwork and stained-glass windows—all surfaces that would reflect audio and create aural havoc.
To avoid that, the team turned to Renkus-Heinz’ ICLive X Series, which makes use of Renkus-Heinz’ digital beam steering technology. The hall now utilizes two arrays of ICLive X loudspeakers. Each array is made up of two ICLX units. Renkus-Heinz TA62s are also installed in the front side corners of the space using the company’s Complex Conic constant directivity waveguide design to provide consistent coverage across a space. A pair of TX-61s are installed on the balcony level ensure coverage as well.
“Once we had the speakers installed, we spent about 20 minutes aiming the beams through the RHAON software,” said John Hurley, engineer at Lee Hartman & Sons, Inc. “The sound went from pretty good when they weren’t aimed at all, to truly amazing.”
Renkus-Heinz • www.renkus-heinz.com
